


Space Kaleidoscope

by Wansly



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Blood, Blood and Injury, Cutting, Depressed Morty Smith, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Drunk Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gentle Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty), Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Marijuana, Multiverse, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overdose, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Smoking, Stargazing, Underage Drug Use, Underage Smoking, Weed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24186439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wansly/pseuds/Wansly
Summary: Rick and Morty has a very complex relationship. Most of the time they are fighting aliens and running for their lives. And sometimes they are smoking weed on a rooftop in the middle of the night. Morty has a secret that he doesn’t know if he’s ready to share with his Rick.
Relationships: Rick Sanchez/Morty Smith
Comments: 27
Kudos: 120





	1. Rooftop

Morty shot his eyes up in a panic. He breathed heavily. Oh jeez, had he really been screaming in his sleep again? If that was the case; he prayed and hoped to god that nobody in his family had heard it. He squirmed around in his bed and soon felt that his whole body was covered in a sticky layer of cold sweat. And he was practically shaking of fear. What .... the fuck had he dreamt? 

Morty stared up at the ceiling. He desperately tried to recollect what he nightmare had been all about, but the more he was trying to remember, the more it slipped away from him. He knew that It was something about some weird aliens invading their house, but he couldn’t remember anything other than that.

Morty’s head was spinning and he tried his best to take deep calming breaths. He followed the lines and the empty holes of peeling paint in his bedroom ceiling in an attempt to calm his nerves. He felt paranoid as hell, it felt almost like someone was here inside his room, watching him. With wide eyes he slowly glanced around the room until he settled his sight on the closet. The door was slightly open. What if someone was there inside watching him right now? He quickly realized that the thought was pretty dumb. He always felt panicked when he woke up from a nightmare, this time was no different. The built up panic slowly started to fade away with the realization. 

Morty’s room was dark, the only sources that could provide any light was his digital clock on the nightstand, and the dimmed moonlight shining from his windows. The clock read 03:14 in big red numbers. 

Fuck. 

His sleeping problems had gotten worse lately, and the chances of him being able to fall asleep again at this time of the night seemed very unlikely. Maybe he could go downstairs and watch some TV? Or check if Rick was still up in the garage tinkering with something? 

He let out a small sigh. Rick would probably be annoyed and then laugh at him when it comes to his realization that Morty is awake because of some stupid nightmare. No, he had to stay inside his room. Morty closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep for a while, trying desperately to be soaked up by the darkness surrounding him and slip into oblivion. But it was hopeless now, he felt insanely restless. His legs were itching. And he still felt anxious from the nightmare, and that’s when he came up with an idea. 

Weed. 

He had actually dared to buy a little bit of weed from a cute guy at school a couple of weeks ago. He wasn’t really thinking about smoking it at first, he was just trying to get a friend. Even if that meant that he had to pretended that he was a “chill dude” that casually smoked weed sometimes. Not that anyone would really believe him, that was like the opposite of how everyone at school saw him. But on the other hand, this situation was a legit reason to actually try it out, ... right? 

Morty had actually already tried weed once, at a lame party in an attempt to fit in among the cooler kids. And he had also been dared to try a puff of something, that very likely could have been some kind of blue space weed, of Rick one time in his spaceship. But that was a long time ago. Safe to say he hadn’t had much experience with the plant, but he had at least enjoyed it the few times he had tried it. It made his usual self more calm and less anxious, which always was a plus. 

He heaved himself of the bed and stumbled across the messy bedroom floor that was filled with mismatched socks and scrambled up papers. He opened the closet door, and to his relief, there was no one hiding inside. He dug around in a big pile of yellow shirts, pants and a few hid away Victoria’s Secret magazines in search for the weed. After a while he finally found it deep down in the mess. He lifted up a little plastic bag that contained a few joints and grabbed one of them. He also had a little blue lighter in his drawer that he took with him. 

He figured that it would be best to smoke it on the roof, since it may start smelling ... weird?, in the house otherwise. Not like anyone but Rick, and maybe Summer, would recognize the smell. But it’s better to be on the safe side. He walked over to his window, opened it slowly and slipped outside. The nightair was fresh and cold, and it felt amazing against his still slightly sweaty skin. The roof tiles felt cold and rough underneath his bare feet. He climbed up on the rooftop and took a seat. 

He took up the joint and hesitated for a moment. What would he do if he got caught? Jerry would probably loose his mind and blame it on Rick, say that he had a bad influence on the kids. Beth would get angry at Jerry. Summer wouldn’t care. Typical. He came to a conclusion that he was willing to take the risk, he just wanted to relax for a moment and then go back inside and try to sleep. 

He lit the joint and took a small drag. He almost coughed, but it was alright. There was no one here to judge him. He took another small drag and looked up at the sky. It was so beautiful, the starts shined so brightly and the moon seemed to be bigger than usual. He spent a lot of time in space with Rick of course, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen a wide variety of wonderful places and landscapes that was more impressing than the nightsky on earth. But it always felt special and close to heart to just sit alone and stargaze home at earth from time to time. Morty smiled to himself when he felt that his mind and muscles started to relax, and he slowly laid himself down on the rooftop. He thought about happy memories and started to hum on a song that he had heard on the radio in Ricks garage the other day. 

Suddenly he heard a sound coming from inside of the house. It sounded like... a door? Was it the door to his room? His mind was a little bit fuzzy from the weed, and the sounds around him were a bit muffled. But he swore to god that he could recognize this familiar voice in literally any state of mind that he found himself in. It was Rick.

“Morty y-you little shit, you in here? I-we need to go M-morty! I need your help, Mu-morty”

When he made no answer he could hear that the steps kept on shuffling around in his room. Suddenly he remembered that he forgot to close the window when he climbed out, that would probably explain why he was able to hear the voice inside his room in the first place.

“You outside tryna jump, Morty? Where are you?”, mumbled Rick as he peeked his head out from the window.

Morty made no answer. He desperately tried to press himself against the rooftop in an attempt to make himself appear smaller, so that he wouldn’t get spotted. He really didn’t feel like going on an adventure right now. He was finally having some nice alone time.

“I c-can see you you lil dipshit”, Rick snarled. “Don’t try to hideee from meee!”

There was a small moment of silence until Rick spoke again.

“Is that...? Is that smoke I-I see M-morthy?”

Rick climbed out on the roof with a small groan and began crawling up in Mortys direction. Morty fumbled with his hands and tried to hide the joint behind his back. He swallowed hard and started to look around for a way to escape from the roof, a rising panic visible in his eyes. He didn’t want anyone to know about this. He really didn’t.

Rick could see that Morty started to panic and knew that panic is the least thing you would want to feel when you are high, it could in worst case scenario cause a panic attack. And you don’t want to waste a good ol joint. He needed to calm the poor kid down a bit so he didn’t freak out and woke the whole house up.

“Relax Morty, relax! Take it e-easy will ya?”, Rick said smoothly. “No need to panic, it’s - it’s just me, grandpa.”

Morty cleansed his eyes shut. What was he supposed to do now? He felt panicked and embarrassed for some reason. He could feel his face flush a little bit at the thought of having to explain why he was up on the roof, smoking weed of all things, in the middle of the night. Why was he so god damed easily frightened all the time?

“H-hi Rick”, Morty stuttered.

“W-when did you grow a pair and started smoking weed? I’m honestly a bit i-i-impressed M-morty. I didn’t believe that about you.”, Rick chuckled. When he saw that Morty visually relaxed at the praise he quickly added; “Don’t let it go to your head tho.”

Morty opened his eyes and looked away with a pained expression on his face. Damn it, he really didn’t want anyone to know. What if he told the whole family? This was shit, but he had to at least do the best of the situation.

“Don’t t-t-tell anyone, ....please R-rick”, Morty pleaded. He looked up at Rick with big puppy eyes. “Pleeeease....”

“Who do you think I am Morty? Some-some kind of snitch? Of course not. Now give me- give me the joint will ya?”, Rick scuffed. He reached out his hand towards Morty and made a little grab motion in the air.

Morty took out the joint, that he hopelessly had tried to hide behind his back, and handed it to Rick. What was he going to do with it? Was he going to throw it off the roof? No. Rick immediately guided the joint to his lips and took a deep drag, he held it inside, tilted his head back and let the thick white smoke dance out from beneath his lips in slow swirling motions. The smoked almost looked alive. Morty studied Rick as he smoked and suddenly he felt that weird tingling sensation in his stomach again. 

Morty had a always admired Rick, even though he most of the time behaved like a selfcentered, nihilistic asshole without a care in the whole world. There was just something about the way Rick always seemed so confident and reckless that made Morty secretly look up to him, even though it seemed wrong at times. And the few actions of affection that he, rarely, got from Rick always managed to leave him all warm and fuzzy inside. Morty glanced over at Rick with dreamy eyes. His face was wrinkly yet smooth, his eyes were piercing yet dull in the dim moonlight. He looked old and young at the same time. His hair was messy but still-

“W-watcha staring at kid? Don’t tell me you’r one of those that get fucking creepy as hell when they’r high, M-Morty”, Rick said while taking another hit of the joint.

Shit, he caught himself staring for way too long at Rick’s face. He could probably blame it on the weed, but Morty didn’t even feel that high anymore. He had only been able to take like a two small drags of the joint before Rick came and disturbed him. Why was he even still here on the roof with him? Must be for the free drugs.

“S-sorry Rick, got lost in my thoughts”, Morty mumbled. “Can I-i uuuhm like have one more puff R-ick? Of the joint?”

”That’s more like it kid!”, Rick scruffed as he handed over the joint and raised his other hand to ruffle Morty’s messy bedhair. 

Morty lifted the joint to his lips and took a bigger drag this time. He felt impressed when he realized that he was able to keep it inside his lungs without coughing this time, and then he tried his best to exhale it as beautifully as Rick had done earlier. He almost felt a bit proud of himself. The white smoke swirled around his face and made squiggly patterns in the cold night air.

“Sshhiiiit dawg, yo-you really going for it M-morty”

“S-shut up R-rick!”, Morty giggled.

They laid down next to each other on the rooftop for a while. Passed the joint back and forth, Rick showed Morty some of his best smoke-tricks. After a while Morty felt like his whole head was as soft as a cloud and he felt relaxed and free. His thoughts were all over the place and he desperately tried to grab hold of one to have something to say, in order to break the silence.

“Oh jeeez... I-it feels like I can taste the air Rick. I-i have to say it tastes pretty good”, Morty laughed.

“You’r high as fuuuck dude”

Yup, he was definitely high right now. But it felt pretty good. It was nice to just chill with Rick for once. Sure, they sat on the couch and watched TV together a lot when they needed some time off. And sometimes they just drifted around aimlessly in Ricks spaceship, ate ice cream, or did other things that didn’t involve killing and running for your life. But unfortunately it didn’t happen as often as Morty wished it would. Mortys mouth felt a bit dry. He smacked his tongue up against his palate. 

“Do you ever wonder if there is an end to everything?”, Morty asked suddenly.

“Wha-what are you sayin kiddo?”

Morty gazed up at the sky with squinted eyes. It suddenly felt so big and he felt so, so incredibly small. Like he was all alone in this insanely big universe. His thoughts were slow and mushy. He thought about how Rick constantly made a point that everything was pointless and that that every failure and success trough out your life will be forgotten. But was it always going to be that way, for eternity? 

“Space. The universe. I-i-is there an end to it? Or will it like ... keep on going forever?”

“Endless universes M-morty, endless dimensions, endless space, end-endless possibilities... you should totally know that by now”, Rick said slowly.

“Yeeeeah, it just feels so weird thinking about it you know?”

“Tr-try and not think too hard about it, yo-you can overstrain ya brain with all that thinking kid”, Rick said with a smile on his lips. 

“Fuck off R-rick”, Morty laughed. 

He turned to his side so he could watch Rick for a moment. He looked so relaxed and at peace for once. Morty knew that Rick had been having a hard couple of days lately. He had been working on a new project and he had barely slept or even joined the family at the dinner table in the evenings. He had also been drinking a lot more. He looked tired and almost ... fragile. His blue piercing eyes were staring out into the universe, dark circles beneath his eyes. His body laid limp on the roof and one of his long skinny legs were swayed over the other. His even skinnier arms were tucked underneath his head. He had a pale ashy complexion, his blue grayish hair was wild and messy. Morty had to admit that he was kind of appealing in a weird way. He could understand why his grandfather was an interest of so many spices through out the multiverse. He looked rough, like he had lived a 1000 lifetimes. He followed the hard contours of Ricks face with squinted eyes.

“What happened?”, Morty asked as he raised his hand to Ricks face. He let his fingers lightly stroke over a little bit of raised skin tissue near the old mans ear. His skin was warm to the touch. Rick flinched away at the sudden touch, but then let Morty stroke his finger over the scar one more time.

“Uhhh, ju-just some silly accident Morty. Fell down -uurph- the stairs one time when I was drunk out of my mind. Could-could’ve ended bad if I landed on my t-temple.”, Ruck mumbled. “Not like I wouldn’t be able to fix it tho, I’m fucking smart as f-fuuuck.”

Rick let out a small groan as he turned over so he was lying on his side as well. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Icy blue colliding with dark brown. Rick suddenly burst out in a small chuckle.

“Mo-morty, you should see your eyes right now dawg. They’re red as fuuuuuck, baby. You look like a little- a little crybaby.”

At that Morty started to giggle happily. The way Rick expressed himself and the way he cursed was so incredibly funny for some reason. And he had always had a sweet spot for when Rick called him baby or sweet names, and it felt extra good right now. Even though, this time, it was kind of meant as an insult. The weed must truly be doing wonders.

“Pfffft, y-you should se your own eyes Rick”, Morty said provokingly. 

They lied there on the roof for a while, joked around and giggled together. Letting the weed do it’s magic. They had, after a while, returned to lying on their backs again as they continued to stargaze. The big moon, the stars and all of the colors, a mixture of blue, purple and pink above swirled together like a gigantic space kaleidoscope. It was more beautiful than Morty remembered it being earlier. Morty smiled and moved a little bit closer to Ricks body, until he could feel the warmth radiating from it. He had a strong urge for physical contact, maybe he could reach out and touch Ricks hand? 

Nahh, what was he even thinking. His grandfather wouldn’t agree to do “sappy shit” like that. The one and only Rick Sanchez didn’t care about stuff like that. Morty decided to let the thought slip and kept on stargazing. 

Morty knew that this truly was a rare moment in space and time. Just laying here on the roof with Rick. He felt alive, but it almost felt a bit too good to be true. Morty felt like his mind was floating away, almost like he slowly got disconnected from his own body. The urge to feel something was rapidly getting stronger. Maybe ha wasn’t longing for physical touch after all, maybe he longed after something else? A overwhelming thought to check if this actually was real at all suddenly hit him. What if it was a simulation? He fumbled around with his hand on the roof until he felt what he was searching for under his palm. He lifted the object up into the air and looked at it.

His blue lighter.

“Watch this!”, Morty said as he flicked the lighter on and moved it in the direction of his left arm. 

It all happened so quickly that he didn’t even thought about it before doing it. He let the flame of the lighter touch his arm and he held it totally still against his underarm without even flinching. He watched in amusement as his own skin started to melt. Maybe the weed was making him numb, but It in a weird way it felt really good.

“WHAT THE FUCK MORTY!?”, Rick grabbed Mortys left wrist in a tight grip and dragged the lighter from his other hand. He tossed the lighter across the roof. 

“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”, Rick said with a shocked, but mostly angry voice. His blue piercing eyes staring right into his soul.

Morty flinched back in Ricks firm grip. The mood had totally switched and Morty felt confused. He wasn’t feeling relaxed anymore; now he felt scared. He was surprised that Rick took his action so seriously. He was just trying to joke around, right? 

“O jeeez....S-s-sorry Rick, I-I-i it was meant as a-a joke, I-i-i promise”, Morty stuttered. Rick let go of his arm and Morty immediately crumpled up into a ball on the roof. He could feel tears starting to sting in his eyes.

“It’s not a joke to hurt y-y-yourself on purpose like that M-Morty. What were you even thinking!?”

Morty sniffled. “I was just checking, if-if this was real or something. It felt like... I felt like I was dreaming...I-i think that I’m kinda high R-rick.”

Rick felt absolutely shocked about what Morty had done, but he was careful to disguise it with anger in front of the kid as usual. What. The. Fuck. 

In all this time that they had knew each other he hadn’t witnessed Morty hurting himself on purpose a single time. Rick didn’t believe that he would have the guts to do something like that. The worst thing of it all was that he had acted totally numb, like he didn’t even had a reaction to melting his own flesh. Sure, he was high on weed, but not that high. It happened that he got hurt on accident, mostly because of Rick, but sometimes because of his own stupidity on their adventures. Some of them worse than others, and Morty would always scream and cry like a hurt animal. This actually made him a bit worried for the kid. Rick himself had a long past of self-harm and substance abuse and the least thing he wanted was to pass that on to his grandkids, especially Morty. Maybe he had to be comforting just this one time?

“It-it’s okay kiddo, just don’t do that shit again will ya. Tryna give me a heartattack or some shit.”

Morty sniffled again. He was almost about to to cry. Not because of the wound, but because how angry Rick was at him.

“Le-let me -urghp- check that out.”, Rick said and reached out for Mortys arm. 

Morty let him take hold of his arm and watched as Rick inspected the fresh wound. The burned skin was flaming red, the wound looked deep and it was burned around the edges. A smell of burnt hairs and flesh lingered in the air. Even when Morty saw how bad the wound looked he couldn’t feel any pain. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush.

“I have a cream for s-shit like this back in the garage. Remembered when you burned yo-yourself at that shitty heist-con that we tried to sneak into? It’s like that but, it-it won’t turn you into something this time.”

Morty nodded slowly. He felt kind of exhausted. He also started to feel less worried now when Rick seemed to calm down. He looked over at Rick as he took out his silver flaks from his inner pocket and took a large gulp.

“Will you -uuurp- will you follow me to the garage so I can take care of this?”, Rick asked somewhat calmly. 

Morty nodded again and followed him back inside and down to the garage. He felt a little bit dizzy when he moved and his sight was a bit blurry. He felt really exhausted and slow, kinda like a sloth. All he wanted to do was to go lay down again in his comfy bed and forget about this mess. He jumped up at Rick’s work table and dangled with his slim legs over the edge. 

“This w-will maybe sting a bit M-morty”, Rick said as he smeared a large dollop of some kind of healing cream onto the wound on Mortys small pale arm.

“Okay R-rick”, Morty almost whispered.

Morty felt nothing. Witch in one way was nice, and in another way; was alarming. He watched as the skin began to patch itself back together. The redness slowly disappeared. Rick placed some kind of band-aid over the wound and then patted it almost soothingly.

“A-and as i said before, I woul- I don’t want that to happen again. Even if it w-was a ‘joke’.”, Rick said with a serious tone. Morty looked up to meet Rick’s gaze. His otherwise piercing eyes suddenly appeared numb and distant.

Morty felt confused, and was just able to give Rick a tired nod as an answer. All he wished for was to go back to his room so he could sleep off the remains of his high.


	2. Raspberries and peaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick takes Morty to space to try some of his space weed. Morty wonders if he dares to make a move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It gets a little more fluffy this time :3: I hope you like it!   
> Thanks everyone for reading btw! It makes me so happy! :D

Morty woke up the next day laying in his bed. Weird, he hardly even remembered that he went to bed last night. His head felt heavy and his mouth was super dry.

Ugh, right.

He had smoked weed with Rick on the rooftop. But he still couldn’t remember how he ended up in his bed. Should he be worried?

Morty let out a long heavy sigh and turned his head over and glanced at the clock on his bedside table. He gasped when he saw that it was already 2’o clock in the afternoon. He had successfully overslept and missed school again, that was like the 15th time just this month. His parents would be sooo angry if they found out. 

Morty suddenly felt like he was in desperate need of something to drink; so he gathered all of his strengths to haul himself out the bed and on to his feet. Morty had a pained expression on his face and held his hand up to his head when it started to spin. His sight went black for a second and then it slowly came back until he could see again. He figured that he probably was really dehydrated and decided to make his way to the kitchen.

He stumbled out from his room and draged himself down the stairs. He went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Damn he was hungry. With a pair of slightly shaking hands he grabbed a soda and some things that he could use to make himself some sandwiches. Jeez, he really needed that glucose right now or else he would probably faint. He grabbed everything that he had gathered and put it on a tray to take with him to the couch in the living room.

He sat down in the sofa, turned the TV on and popped the can of soda open. He drank almost the whole soda in one go, wiped his mouth with the backside of his hand, and lazily sunk down into the sofa. Much better. There was some kind of weird alien program on the TV about talking kitchenware and Morty was somewhat following it while he ate his sandwiches; up until he heard familiar footsteps stumbling up behind him.

“Ey what’s up dawg?”

It was Rick. He slumped down in the sofa besides Morty with a sigh and throwed his long slim legs up on to the coffee table in front of them. His hair was messy and he had a newly opened beercan in his left hand.

“Hi R-rick, about last night, I-I-i’m -“

“No need to say anything buh-buddy.”  
“I take back what I said tho, yo-you definitely get creepy when you’re stoned.”, Rick said as the took a large gulp of beer.

Morty looked at him with big eyes. What was that even supposed to mean? 

“Wh-what Rick? What did I do?”, Morty said a little panicked.

Rick scooted over in the couch and reached out for Morty’s arm. Rick patted with one of his boney fingers against a white bandaid on his underarm, that Morty haven’t even realized was there until now.

“You went nuts and burned y-y-youself. I had to take care of y-you like-like the little turd you are M-m-morty.”

Morty glanced down on his arm and swallowed thickly. All of the memories from last night started to come back to him. Suddenly he remembered everything. Oh jeez!, he felt so stupid, and most of all embarrassed. How did he even come up with such an idea in the first place? Why had he hurt himself like that?

“Oo geee I’m s-sorry Rick. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Rick took out his flask from his inside pocket and poured a heavy amount of it into the beercan, and then took a large gulp from it. It was quiet for a while. It seemed like he was waiting for Morty to continue, so Morty opened his mouth once again.

“I promise I-i-i won’t do it again! .... And thanks for the - the help R-rick.”, Morty stuttered out while looking down onto his lap.

“Ahhg, don’t worry too much about it buddy. Tha-that weed was kinda lame to be honest Muh-morty. There is a whole bunch of shit to explore out there, there’s much better stuhhff you can get a hold on.”, Rick slured.

Something inside of Morty hurted seeing his grandfather in this state, because it was just early in the afternoon and he was already plastered. Rick gestured clumsily with the hand that was holding the beercan as he spoke, and Morty was a bit afraid that beer would spill all over the couch at any given moment if he kept on going. Suddenly Rick leaned over so close that he was inches away from Morty’s face. He could feel the heavy scent of whiskey lingering in the air, making his nose itch.

“Soo w-what do you say Mu-orthy?”, Rick whispered, his voice rough.

“Ooo geez Rick, I don’t really know. I’m still kinda young you know. Maybe i shouldn’t -“

“Ssshgh Mo-morty, stop being a whiny puss will ya. I will show you some gr-great weed Morty, that won’t make you wanna make a bbq of youh... self! That-that’s like the least I can do f-for you, you little dipshit. We can go nowh, I will show you-...”, Rick rambled and then he patted hard on Morty’s head with his free hand.

It was quiet. 

“O-okay Rick, I guess we could do that.”, Morty said after some thinking. He knew that Rick wouldn’t settle for a no.

Morty carefully glanced up at Rick to see his reaction, and he was shocked at what he saw. 

Rick smiled at him. 

A honest, pure, genuine smile.

Morty felt that his cheeks started to heat up and he quickly averted his eyes. It rarely happened that Rick looked at him, or anything else for that matter, in that way. Like he was happy. Oo jeeez.

“Great M-morty! Then l-let’s go to the garage!”, Rick said excitedly and stood up from the couch.

Morty quickly followed him up from the couch, glad that the focus no longer was on his pinkflushed face. He followed Rick inside of the garage and watched as his grandfather started to search around in different drawers and under piles of junk on his workspace. The garage seemed to be messier than usual, but at last Rick stopped searching and waved his arm in the air.

“Ahhg got it!”, Rick shouted as he waved a bag that contained something pink that was slightly glowing.

“This will give you a real good relaxing h-high M-Morty, s’ not anything lame this time M-Morty!”

“If you say so R-Rick”, Morty answered anxiously. 

“Are w-we going to smoke it here in the g-garage Rick?

Rick turned around and looked at Morty with a crazy expression on his face.  
“Hell no, stop being a- stop being lame M-Morty. We are taking the ship babyyy!”

“Alright R-r-rick.”

Rick stumbled over to the ship and opened up the door to the driver seat. A few empty alcohol bottles falled out and clinkered down onto the garage floor. Morty walked around to the passenger seat, climbed in to the ship and buckled up his seatbelt. Morty was slightly worried about Rick’s driving ability while he was in such an intoxicated state, but it wasn’t like it was something new. Rick lifted the ship into the air. Soon they breaked trough the atmosphere and found themselves soaring around in outer space. Morty had always been amazed at the incredible view that was provided out in space, it almost felt surreal at times when they flied past planets, suns and black holes like it was a totally normal thing to do.

“Where are we g-going?”

“I-I-I’m gonna take y-you -uurp- somewhere nice Morty, r-real nice.”

“O-okay Rick.”, Morty said as he shaked his right leg up and down. He felt the ever so familiar feeling of restlessness creeping up on him again. He scratched a little on his arm were the band-aid from last night still was located. He looked outside of the window. A big asteroid belt swished past and once again Morty felt worried about Ricks driving ability. He glanced over at his grandfather were he sat in his seat. Ricks hands were twitching slightly and he had a glossy look in his eyes; he also looked a bit irritated.

“C-can ya sh-sit still for one damn second, or is- is even that too hard for you y-y-ou little shit.”, Rick grunted when he acknowledged Morty’s staring and anxious tics.

“Uhm, yea, s-sorry Rick.”, Morty mumbled. He had to calm down, but it was hard. He desperately wanted something to do, why had he left his phone back at home? After a while he just settled on trying to take a nap, it was better than doing nothing at all.

They flied around for about 40 more minutes and Morty had after a while calmed down surprisingly enough to be able to fall asleep in his seat. The sound of the engine, Ricks deep breaths and the clinkering beer bottles on the floor had actually accomplished to lull him to sleep. Morty’s head had lolled over to the side, against the window, and hot puffs of oxygen blew againts the glass and created small clouds of fog.

Rick looked over at his sleeping grandson. He would never, ever, admit it out loud; but Morty actually looked kind of cute when he was asleep like this. He had always looked a bit younger than his actual age, but when he was asleep that underlying baby face really came through. His skin was flushed pink from being asleep and probably from the warm temperature inside of the ship, and his mouth was just slightly opened; a drop of glistering drool rested on his lower lip. Seeing Morty like this somewhat reminded Rick of when Beth once was a small child and used to sleep on his lap. He hadn’t been around as much as he should have been, and it made him feel a bit guilty deep down thinking about it. But Beth had at least, at one point in his life, been his little girl. And he remembered that he used to feel a strong need to protect her small frame when she was young; and he would be lying if he said that he didn’t feel the same way about Morty too. Even though he wasn’t that young, like Beth once had been.

Rick actually felt sorry about having to wake Morty up when they arrived at the destination. He really needed the little sleep he could get a hold on these days, but Rick was too exited to allow himself to think about it for too long.

“Weh-we are here now, M-morty. W-wake up, Mortyh.”, Rick said excitedly as he shaked Morty’s shoulder.

“Uugh whaaa..?”, Morty slurred and looked around a bit confused.

Morty immediately looked outside of the ship and was met by one of the prettiest views he had ever laid his eyes on. It was the biggest, most colorful and glowing nebula he had ever seen. Colors like dark pink, purple, light green and blue swirled around and created almost like a big storm of glowing particles and space dust. Morty’s heart started to beat faster when he realized that it was Rick that had taken him here, just to be able show him this breathtaking phenomenon. 

“Pretty n-nice, huh kiddo?”, Rick said and bumped Morty in the side with his elbow.

“I-it’s a-amazing Rick!”, Morty squealed happily, his eyes big and glowing with wonder.

“I knew ya would like it you l-l-lil sap. And now we are g-going to make it EVEN prettier with th- with the help of this!”, Rick shouted and dangled the plastic bag, that contained the pink drug, in front of Morty’s face.

“Oh jeee R-rick, are you sure?”

“Chill out M-Morty, it’s a-alright, I will show ya how it’s done.”

Rick opened the plastic bag, took a whiff of the contains and let out an approving sigh. He took out some rolling papers from somewhere in the ship and quickly started to roll two joints. Morty observed as Ricks slender fingers almost seemed to dance as he worked. Rick worked with the same finesse as he always did, whether it was back at home in the garage tinkering away with some new weird gadget; or wether it was opening a new bottle of Hennessy. When he was done he had two slim, but long, perfectly rolled joints laying in the palm of his hand.

“I’m not g-gonna be able to smoke one of those all by myself, R-Rick. W-what if it’s too strong?”, Morty said worriedly.

“It’s okay M-Morty, these babies burn out very very slowly, so you- you can just take a-a-as much as you please whenever ya feel like it. And you don’t have t-to worryh about them burning out or some shit. Also w-we are hotboxing the ship.”

Rick handed him one of the joints, it weighted almost nothing in Mortys small hand. 

“Are you r-ready to get high as fuuck M-Morty?”

“I guess so.”, Morty said anxiously and wiped his sweaty free hand on his pants. He was afraid that he would start doing weird stuff again, that he maybe wouldn’t even remember later.

Rick took up a weird lighter that, when activated, looked like a small laser beam. He lit up his own joint and immediately took a large inhale. They booth waited in silence for a few seconds before Rick exhaled the smoke that he had held captured in his lungs. A big soft cloud of swirling pink and light orange left his lips and blew out in the ship. The cloud of smoke sparkled and shined, almost like it contained small stars. Rick relaxed in his seat, tilted his head back and stretched out his slim legs in front of him.

“Wooaah R-rick, that-that’s so pretty.”, Morty said astonished.

“Y-yeah yeah right, now it’s your turn you lil shit.”

Morty placed the joint between his lips and was just about to reach out for the lighter; when he saw that Rick was about to light it up for him. A warm fuzzy feeling spread through his stomach at the realization. He tilted his head forward in Ricks direction and the two made eye contact as Rick lit up his joint. Morty took a small experimental inhale and was almost shocked at how soft and thin the smoke felt in his mouth. It was also very sweet tasting; it tasted like raspberries and sun ripe peaches. It was not a flavor that he necessarily associated with Rick; he figured that he would usually go for something stronger and more harsh. Maybe he had thought about Morty when he picked the weed out? 

Morty carefully blew out the small amount of smoke he had in his mouth and a cute colorful, sparkling cloud appeared in front of him. 

“Not t-too bad huh, M-mmorty?”

“It’s so sweet and thin, i-it really is amazing Rick!”, Morty giggled happily. 

“Duhh, I’m not gonna give y-youh some bad shit, you have t-to beli- you have to trust me on t-this one!”, Rick stuttered as he took another hit of his joint.

Morty took another inhale and immediately felt more calm, the anexiety slowly started to leave his body. Maybe he had been worried in vain. Morty took another, deeper, inhale this time; savoring the sweet flavor that spread through his mouth. It actually felt very good. Soon he felt a warm tingling sensation roll out in his toes and fingertips, and everything around him seemed to be appear even more colorful than it had been just moments before.

“I f-feel tingly.”, Morty giggles.

“T-that’s the sph-spirit, dawg!”, Rick said and slumped back in his seat.

Morty looked outside the window; everything was so incredibly beautiful Morty almost felt like tearing up. All of the colors swirled together and created weird patterns all over the place. It was almost a bit overwhelming. Morty put both of his hands on the window and tilted his head so it could rest against the cool glass. It was truly amazing.

“Woaaah R-rick, ever-everything is moving around.”, Morty said slowly.

“Y-you are such a lightweight M-mortyh. It’s ridiculous.”

“L-look at me Morty.”

Morty turned around and looked at his grandfather. The first thing Morty noticed was how Ricks scleras were a strange light peach color. Then he saw that his eyes were even more lightblue and piercing than usual; it looked almost unreal. He had a calm and relaxed expression on his face; his cheeks slightly colored. 

“Huuhh? What R-Rick?”

“I just wanted t-to check y-your eyes yo stupid. Wa-wanted to know if ya were trippin or not.”, Rick said with a grin on his lips. He took another hit of his joint and blew it in Mortys face. 

“S-stop it R-rick! I can’t take it any more. I c-can barely feel my legs!”, Morty giggled. He placed his joint on the dashboard; swirling smoke radiating from it. Both of his legs and his arms had started to get numb by the tingling sensation. But it wasn’t a scary sort of numb, it was more like a comfortably numb feeling.

“Can you f-feel t-this?”, Rick asked and pinched Morty’s left thigh hard.

“Aooouch!”, Morty squeaked. He could definitely feel it; it actually stung more than he thought it would do. 

Rick laughed at him; but he didn’t remove his hand. Instead he let it rest loosely on top of Morty’s knee. Morty looked down in his lap, he was a little bit puzzled. Was this some kind of silent invitation? He could feel his heart racing in his chest. Would it be okay to touch Ricks hand; like he had wanted yesterday night at the rooftop? Carefully Morty lowered his own hand and grabbed hold of Ricks. The warm and rough skin of his grandfathers hand felt very good in his own smooth one. Morty looked down on their hands, it looked so wrong to do this with someone like Rick, he didn’t like stuff like this, right? When Rick didn’t seem to object; Morty finally dared to speak.

“Woah y-your hands are so big R-rick.”, Morty said astonished. “I can, l-like fit my whole hand inside of your fist.”

“S-such a sap.”, Rick said provokingly. 

“I-I’m not the one that w-wanted to hold ha- hands this time!” Morty said sourly. 

Rich laughed and took another drag from his joint. He blew it in Mortys face once again. 

“T-this t-time? What does- what is this, couples the-therapy or some shit?”

Morty tried to retreat his hand, but Rick grabbed hold of it and held it in a firm grip. He interlocked their fingers together. 

“I’m j-just kiddin with ya, chill out man.” 

“It’s like multiverse-ally known t-that soft weed like-like this, raises your desire to-to hold hands with like 80%”, Rick continued with a grin.

“Really R-rick? Is that true?”

“Ye, ye sure, whatever helps you sleep at night you lil shit.”, Rick said and waved his joint in the air.

Morty realized that the air inside of the ship started to become very foggy with the peach colored smoke. Mortys head felt fuzzy and his thoughts started to become cloudy. He leaned back in his seat a little and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He saw a lot of colorful patterns and shapes swirling around under his eyelids, once again it felt just on the edge to be a bit too overwhelming, but it was alright; he actually likes it. He opened his eyes and looked out into space again; it was truly amazing. It was hard to grip that this weird space weed could make everything look so beautiful and alive. 

“This is so nice R-rick, r-really, thank you.”, Morty hummed. 

“Don’t e-evenh mention it kid, I do shit l-like this all- all the time.”

Rick let go of Mortys hand, to Mortys obvious dismay, and started to tinker with his seat. He adjusted the seat so it tilted back; so he could lay down a bit further. He sprawled out his lanky frame on the seat and let out a heavy sigh. Morty glanced down on Ricks stomach, were his shirt had started to ride up. Rick was very skinny, not sickly skinny, but very close. Morty figured that it surely wouldn’t hurt to switch out the alcohol for food from time to time. Morty missed the physical contact that the handholding had provided, he didn’t know if it was a side effect of the drug; or if it was his subconscious mind screaming after touch. He kind of wanted to lay down next to Rick.

“Watcha lookin at this time Mm-morty?”, Rick mumbled.

Morty flinched and adverted his eyes. He stared down at his hands laying in his lap.

“S-sorry Rick, I was jus thinking that- I don’t know... I-I-it’s silly.”

“Mkey then.”, Rick hummed and took the last remaining inhale of his joint before he stumped it out on the wall.

“C-could I maybe, lay down next you you? I mean- it’s silly- but I don’t know, I-I-I’m pretty exhausted, I-I-I could go for a nap.”, Morty stammered. His cloudy mind didn’t do him any favors in the talking department. He felt the warmth that had spread to his cheeks.

“Shhhhhh stop t-talking will ya, just c-come here buddyh.”, Rick slurred and patted the empty space next to him in the seat. 

Morty almost thought he was joking at first, this couldn’t be real. Maybe he would be teased later, but his desperate mind didn’t allow him to decline the offer. Mort stumbled over in the ship and carefully sat down on Rick’s seat. Rick scooted over a bit and patted the seat once again; an undeniable invitation to lay down. Morty laid himself down next to Rick and glanced up at his face. He looked totally relaxed. His usually wrinkly face seemed smooth and relaxed and his eyes were closed. His breathing was deep and calm. Morty could understand though, Rick had actually smoked up the whole joint. Even though it’s the Rick Sanchez we are talking about; that was used to all types of drugs, he was probably really high right now.

“You-you are my little buddyh, huh M-morty? My little- lil buddy.”, Rick slurred, half asleep already.

“Yeahh, I guess I-I’am.”

Morty moved a little bit closer to Rick and searched for the older mans hand. When he found it, laying limp on the seat, he interlocked their fingers once again. Morty snuggled his face in Ricks shirt, it smelt mostly like alcohol and garage; but in a weird way it felt assuring. Morty had grown up with parents that hadn’t been so much for showing affection trough cuddles and hugs; so right now it felt like he got access to a part of his life that he had missesd out on. 

For the second time that day, Ricks deep breathing managed to lull Morty back to sleep.


	3. The Pill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morty finds a weird pill inside of Ricks garage. Will he come to regret the decision that he is about to make?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW - selfharm
> 
> Hello! :3:  
> I’m sorry if this chapter turned out a bit dark. I was just feeling sad when I wrote it and this happened, so yeah. I promise that the next one will be fluffier.
> 
> And thank you all so much for reading and leaving comments, it makes me so happy :D

Ever since the day of the smoking session in the ship, Morty realized that Rick had started to keep his distance from him more than usual. Rick spent almost all of his time in the garage with both the inside door and the garage door closed shut, which often meant that he didn’t wanted to get disturbed. He barely even attended dinner with the family in the evenings or appeared anywhere else inside of the house. Rick and him still went out on a few adventures together; in order to gather some weird stuff for his grandfathers gadgets... But they hadn’t done anything just for the sake of having fun for quite some time. 

As the days went on Morty had started to believe that it was his fault that it had turned out this way between him and his grandfather. He wasn’t used to being without his company for this long. Whenever he and Rick had a fight, they would usually just be able to be angry at each other for like a few days, max.

It just felt so weird this time, like, they hadn’t even had an argument.

Even though Morty had originally thought that a everyday life with less Rick in it would be good for him; he still found himself sitting in class everyday just longing for a portal to pop up behind him in. He wanted to feel Ricks strong determined hand on his upper arm; pulling him through the ever so familiar green portal without him even having a chance to object. 

Maybe it was a weird thing to be longing for, but it had belonged to Morty’s life for such a long period of time that it felt like a normality these days. It felt so lonely to spend the whole day in school alone, just to come home and also spend whole evenings and nights alone in his room. He had no desire what so ever to spend more time with his family than what was already necessary, he was just too exhausted for more family drama in his life right now. 

Morty had rapidly started to run out of things to do, and the restlessness in his body were starting to get the better of him. Morty found himself dreaming back to the afternoon in the ship a bit to often. Maybe he had overstepped a line when he had asked to sleep besides Rick in the ship; maybe Rick had just pretended to be okay with it in order to shut Morty up? 

Could that really be it? 

Morty was too afraid to make an enter in the garage in case he would make things even worse; so he patiently waited for Rick to come back to him again. Even though that was something that had never happened before; Rick was usually too stubborn to just give in and let somebody else win an argument without a fight. 

But when it had been almost two weeks and Rick hadn’t made a move to clear things up between them; or even tried to spend some quality time with Morty, like they used too do sometimes, he started to loose his faith. It felt like his mind slowly started to go crazy with boredom. Was this similar to how Rick felt when he wasn’t up on his toes all the time; when he wasn’t out on a dangerous mission executing a whole planet, tinkering on his next crazy gadget or was high on some new drug?

Is this how empty he felt? 

Morty was squirming around in his bedsheets, unable to fall asleep as usual. If it wasn’t for the frightening nightmares, it was almost always from the overwhelming feeling of anxiety that creeped up on him. He felt like there was spiders crawling around deep beneath his skin, biting and gnawing at his bones. He scratched his skin hard in an attempt to get the feeling to stop; but it made it even worse. Morty clawed at his skin with his fingernails until it turned out red and irritated. His breathing hitched in his throat; it felt like he had swallowed a bunch of rock. The feeling was suffocating and it felt like it was slowly getting harder and harder to breath. 

In an attempt to calm himself Morty thought about how his body had felt when he had smoked that weed back on the ship; how calm and numb it had felt. The dreams he had dreamt when he had fallen asleep next to Rick had been soothing and relaxing. It had felt weird, like he was souring just on the edge between being awake and deep asleep. He had been surrounded by light smooth colors, beautiful landscapes and weird looking animals; and his body had felt so light and floaty. He had felt totally connected with his subconsciousness and the universe. But even in that imaginary dream world; he had still felt that Ricks safe presence was close to him on the ship. It had, in a way that he couldn’t really explain, kept him in touch with reality.

Morty stared up at the ceiling with teary eyes. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t sleep for shit and it was already close to being 4 AM. He needed to stimulate his brain in some way or else he would probably go crazy. He had already browsed the internet on his phone for like 5 hours, and masturbation was getting boring, so he had to come up with something else. Fuck. Maybe he should go down to the garage and try to speak with Rick at least; because he couldn’t stand this shit much longer. 

He dragged himself out of bed stumbled out in the hallway. It was pitch black, but as he made his way over to the stairs he could spot some light coming from downstairs. He walked down the stairs and realized that somebody had forgotten to turn off the light down in the hall. He made his way over to the garage. With shaking hands he reached out for the doorknob, that to his surprise was unlocked, and slipped inside. Morty lowered his head and closed his eyes; prepared to be shouted at. 

... But nothing happened, it was completely quiet. He looked up and found out that the garage was empty, Rick wasn’t here. The lightning inside of the garage was dim, the only light source was a small industrial desk lamp sitting on top of the workbench. Morty let out a sigh and walked over to Ricks chair and sat down. He looked around; the workspace and the floor beneath it was completely littered with metal scraps, scrumpled up blueprints and way too many empty alcohol bottles. It was a complete mess; but Rick was a messy person after all.

Morty knew that he wasn’t supposed to touch anything, but he started to move around and fiddle with a few things anyway. Rick was already angry at him, so it wasn’t like things could get any worse. He played around with the tools on the workbench until he accidentally flipped a switch on the table by mistake. Morty panicked and looked around, ready for the whole house to collapse or something like that; but nothing happened and the house still remained intact. Morty let out a relived breath of air. He looked down at the workbench again and that’s when he noticed that a little hatch had opened. Morty curiously looked inside; and there he saw it:

The plastic bag with the pink space weed from a couple of weeks ago!, along with some other things.

A million thoughts spun through Mortys head. He could steal some of it, but what if Rick found out? And besides that he didn’t even knew how to roll joints in the first place. He looked around on the other things inside of the hatch. It consisted of a few other plasticbags with various colorful contents, some needles and also some pill bottles. Morty took up one of the pill bottles. The blue label said “Fun”, with Ricks scratchy handwriting on it. That didn’t sound too bad, maybe he could try one?

He opened the lid and shaked out one of the pills so it landed in his palm. It was a small light orange pill with a black mark across it. Morty broke it into two parts and hid the other part in the pocket of his pajama pants. He figured that anything that belonged to Rick probably was very strong; too strong for a Morty so to say. So half of the pill would probably be enough for whatever he was trying to achieve. Morty knew that this probably was a very bad idea; but at this point he found that he could barely even care. He just wanted something to calm his body with. Morty putted the pill bottle back where he had found it in the hatch and closed the lid. He curiously looked down at the pill in his hand; did he dare to take it? 

Yeah.

Morty carefully putted the pill on the top of his tongue and swallowed it dry before he allowed himself to think about it any further. He tilted his head back and stared up at the garage ceiling, waiting for something to happen. 

Within a few minutes Morty felt a weird warm sensation spreading through the insides of his head; it wasn’t like anything that he had felt before. The warm sensation quickly spread through his whole body; it rolled out into his fingertips and all the way to his toes with every heartbeat. The feeling burned trough his body, and it almost felt like it lit all the imaginary spiders under his skin on fire and switched them out with a pleasant numb tingling sensation instead. He experimentally lifted his foot from the floor and then instantly let it flop down again.

He couldn’t feel it. 

Morty pinches his arm hard enough to leave red marks with his nails.

He couldn’t feel that either.

This was exactly what he had hoped for. Now he could concentrate on his thoughts without letting this irritating anxiety-filled prison of flesh stop him from doing it. 

But that feeling didn’t last for too long. 

Morty took a deep breath and felt that his surroundings rapidly started to get blurry, and he could see swirling green worms in the corner of his eyes. The colors around him seemed to slowly invert; everything looked weird and a bit off. He stared down at his shaking hands with big eyes, they looked slightly miss colored and wrong.

Morty started to panic. Was this even his own hands? 

He couldn’t remember.

Morty felt like he was disconnecting from his own body; like he was watching himself in third person perspective. Was this really what Ricks fucked up version of “fun” felt like? Morty just felt weird and out of place, what was even happening? He rested his elbows with his head in his hands on the workbench; trying to collect his thoughts. It felt like he couldn’t even remember anything anymore. But what was the most frightening part was how he felt like he wasn’t inside of his own body. Morty needed a way to check if he still was in control of his own actions. He looked down on the workbench and spotted a scalpel laying just besides his arm. He struggled a bit to move his arm; but after a few tries he had successfully picked up the scalpel and held it tight in his right hand. He eyed it up and down, it looked pretty sharp.

Morty slowly lowered the scalpel to the skin on the other arm in front of him. Was he really going to do it? Was he in control? He let the sharp edge of the scalpel slide over the pale skin on the wrist, and then he slowly allowed the sharp edge to penetrate. His heartbeat was thumping in his chest and it seemed like all of the warmth in his body transferred to the newly opened wound on the wrist. The blood that oozed out looked dark green. 

That was normal right? Or what color was blood now again? 

Morty started to freak out and raised the blade to add another cut. More green blood started to drip down the arm; a small puddle of green gooey blood had started to gather on the surface beneath him. Morty desperately added a few new cuts, and even carved around in the already existing wounds with the scalpel; just to be able to feel if this was his own arm or not. 

The scalped scratched against something hard. Was that the bone? 

But even though the scalpel went deep inside of the arm; Morty couldn’t feel anything at all. It was just all so weird and he was completely freaked out. Suddenly Morty thought that he was hearing music; he was sure that he heard a low scratchy sound playing in the distant. It sounded like some unidentifiable song that was playing on a broken record player. The scratchy whistling sounds slowly started to fill up his whole head. 

It didn’t take long until he understood that the sounds were coming from himself.

All of a sudden the garage door swung open. 

“The HELL are y-y-you doin in here M-MORTY?”

Rick had heard some weird noises coming from the garage while he was resting on the couch in the living room. At first he thought that it was an intruder; but then he had recognized the familiar sounds of Mortys whimpering and whining. What was that kid up to anyways? He better checked up on him. 

Now his grandson sat in front of him, pale and shaking with a scalpel in his right hand. His left arm was completely cut open and a big pool of clotting blood had formed beneath him on the workbench. The sight was making Ricks insides turn upside down, and he could feel bile rising up in his throat. What the fuck was happening. 

“M-morty!”, Rick shouted and ran up to Mortys side.

Rick grabbed hold of Mortys shoulders and turned him around so he could see his face. Mortys eyes were empty and glossy. His pupils were so dilated it was scary. 

“W-what did you do!? Wh-what did y-you take?! ... M-Morty?”

Morty just stared empty in front of him; the only sounds coming from his mouth where whining laced with pain and suffering.

“F-for fucks sake M-morty!!”, Rick shouted angrily and started to search around for something inside of the hatch in the workbench. He had to make a wild guess that Morty had tried some of his drugs; and accidentally taken too much of it.

When Rick found what he was looking for, an injection that worked well for overdoses, he immediately pushed the syringe into Morty’s neck. Morty’s eyes slowly closed shut and his body fell over. Rick catched Mortys limp body in his arms and let the small boys head rest against his own shoulder. 

Rick knew that avoiding Morty probably would have some sort of consequences, but this had caught him completely off guard. What the fuck had he done to his Morty? A strong feeling of guilt started to eat its way trough his insides. 

He laid the boy down on top of his workbench with shaking arms; god he was drunk, and took a look at Mortys arm. He felt nauseous when he saw that the kid had totally sliced up his left wrist. There was blood everywhere. He gathered some products that would be helpful to clean up this mess with and got to work. First Rick injected a syringe filled with a healing serum into Morty’s small arm. He watched as the skin on the wrist slowly started to stitch itself back together. After it was done Rick cleaned the skin from dried blood with a wet cloth. That would have to do it for now. 

Morty continued to lay limp in Ricks arms as he hauled him up from the workbench and carried him out into the living room. He carefully placed the kid down on the couch and took a seat next to him. The house was completely dark, the only light source in the living room was coming from the illuminating lightblue flickering of the TV.

Rick looked down at Morty with sad eyes. He felt shocked about what had happened. It didn’t feel like his Morty could handle to do such horrible things to himself. Rick desperately wanted to know what had triggered him into doing this. Was it just because of how he had ignored Morty, or was it because of something else?  
No Morty deserved to feel this kind of pain; no one. Most Mortys were used to being verbally-,mentally- and sometimes physically abused by their Ricks in one way or another, but there was always a limit to what they could handle. Rick didn’t want to belong to the category of Ricks that caused their Mortys to get depressed and, in worst case scenarios, commit suicide. 

He didn’t want to be one of them.

He needed to fix this. But ever since that afternoon in the ship, Rick had been scared of himself. He knew that he had always liked his Morty very, very much; and that he had an irrational attachment to him. But he couldn’t just allow himself to take his guard down and turn soft, not even for this boy. That wasn’t a good future for a Rick, they were greater than that.

Rick took a large gulp from his flask. 

But on the other hand, he didn’t want to see his own Morty suffer like this. This was his Morty; and he could do whatever the fuck he wanted with him. Maybe he wasn’t like all the other Ricks out there; because fuck them, right? He was going to talk to the boy when he wakes up, and hopefully they are going to be able to sort a few things out. 

Rick carefully lifted up Mortys head and placed it down so it could rest on top of his lap. He stroked his soft messy curls with one hand as he lifted his flask up to his lips to take a gulp with the other. Morty was breathing softly, and it maybe seemed like he was just sleeping normally. But in fact he was in a deep, fake medical sleep that probably would last until sometime in the afternoon. But right now it was around 6:00 in the morning and Rick actually felt kind of tired. Soon the rest of the family would be awake so he figured that it would be best if he carried Morty upstairs to his own room. 

He lifted up Mortys fragile frame from the couch and carried him up the stairs to Mortys bedroom. It was bit alarming how light the boy felt in his arms, but on the other hand, almost all Mortys were this small. He laid down the limp body on top of the bed with a small grunt. Rick tucked Morty in his bedcovers, and then walked away to the bathroom to get a glass of water to put on the nightstand. A vague memory of himself waking up hungover to a glass of water standing on his own nightstand popped into his mind. 

He really didn’t deserve this Morty. 

After he had putted the glass of water down, he found himself just standing inside of Mortys room with an empty feeling growing inside of his body.

He had to fix this; because that was the only thing that Ricks were good for, ... right?


	4. Bong water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick tries to fix his situation with Morty. Later Rick takes Morty to an alien planet tro try a new type of space weed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! d: 
> 
> I hope you like this chapter! :3 It’s kinda fluffy and sweet this time.
> 
> Thank you all for leaving kudos and comments, it makes me really happy!! :D

Morty woke up later in the afternoon that day with an intense headache pulsating trough his entire head. He felt really nauseous, his body felt weak and his muscles felt mushy. Considering the low rays of sunlight that shined trough the curtains into his room; Morty figured that it must be pretty late in the afternoon. He fumbled around with his hand on top of the nightstand in search for his phone. When he found it he took it up and looked at the time on the screen with squinted eyes. 

14:52.

When Morty put the phone down again he spotted the glass of water standing on his nightstand, and almost threw himself over it. The water felt amazing against the dry insides of his mouth. When he had emptied the glass, he started to think about what had happened last night. The last thing that he could remember was that he took a weird pill inside of Ricks garage. He guessed that he must have fallen asleep, because the only thing he could remember was that he had dreamt a horrible nightmare; and now he was laying in his bed. Maybe Rick had found him asleep in the garage and carried him upstairs to his bedroom? 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

“C-c-co — me in?”, Morty said; his voice broke mid-sentence.

The door swung open and no other than Rick himself walked into the room. He looked exhausted and for some reason he wasn’t wearing his lab coat.Morty hauled himself into a sitting position on the bed. 

Rick walked over the room and sat down on the bed next to Mortys legs; and then proceeded to just stare empty out into the room. Was he angry? Sad? Morty couldn’t read it from Ricks empty facial expression.

It was uncomfortably quiet for a while and Morty fiddled around with the empty glass in his hands while he waited for Rick to say something. He was probably so angry, no, furious, at Morty. What else reason could there really be to why Rick had ignored him for so long?

This was probably it. 

What if he finally had decided to leave the family and disappear into space forever? Maybe this was the last time they talked to each other.

“I-I’m sorry Morty.”, Rick said softly.

Okay, that on the other hand, caught Morty completely off guard. He had never imaged that Rick would be the one to feel sorry about all of this.

”I-i thought you were angry at me.” Morty said quietly; not daring to make eye contact with his grandfather as he spoke.

“I AM in fact angry at you, I-I mean, y-y-you went trough my stuff without my permission.”, Rick said and started to gesture with his hands as he talked.

“Aaaaand don’t forget that you also took a fuckin overdose on some random p-pills that you just happened to fucking f-find. Aaaand you sliced up your arm.”, Rick continued; his voice becoming angrier as he spoke.

Morty felt chills running down his back; panic spreading trough his body. He looked down at his arm, it looked completely fine; like nothing had happened at all. Up until now he had just thought that it all had been some weird trippy dream caused by the pills. But as it turned out, all of that had actually really happened. He felt so ashamed of himself.

“Ooh jeeez, I-i’m so s-sorry R-r-Rick!”, Morty cried out. “I was just so bored, I needed something to do. I-i didn’t mean to cause any trouble ... I’m sorry.”

“I k-know th- I know Morty. It’s kinda my fault too. I shouldn’t have ignored you in the first place...”

“- and I - and I definitely shouldn’t keep drugs where anyone in this snooping f-fucking household can find them either.”, Rick continued.

“Why did you ignore me, Rick?”, Morty whined.

”Why did y-you steal my drugs?”, Rick said provokingly.

“Be serious.”

“I dunno M-Morty, I-I guess I needed some time off, away from your bullshit.”, Rick said and jokingly poked Morty in the chest with his boney finger.

Morty still didn’t dare to meet Ricks eyes. He couldn’t stop the uncontrollable anger that started to bubble up inside of him. 

“No, stop. I w-want you to tell me the truth this time Ri-rick.”, Morty suddenly said coldly. 

“O-okey - okey jeez, take it easy will ya?”

It was quiet for a while. Morty carefully studied Ricks face while he probably was thinking about what he should say next. He looked so tired and worn out. He had dark bags resting beneath his eyes and his skin looked more dull than usual. What had he even been up to the latest weeks? Had he been partying? Maybe; but he actually seemed kind of sober right now. 

When Rick cleared his throat; signaling that he was ready to speak, Morty quickly adverted his eyes. 

“I don’t know M-morty. Maybe I hate myself? ... Maybe I’m scared that I’m getting fuckin attached.”

“To this - this version of Earth? Y-you mean to this reality?”, Morty asked anxiously; he rolled around the empty glass that he still was holding in his hands.

“No. I mean to you, M-Morty.”, Rick said softly while he searched for Mortys adverted gaze.

Morty couldn’t stop his cheeks from heating up at that. Where was this praise coming from all of a sudden? 

“W-what do you mean R-rick? Isn’t there like infinite Mortys? I mean... You are like a-a-always nagging me about getting a new Morty, one that isn’t so stupid or somethin.”

”That’s- that’s actually not how it works. Even though it maybe doesn’t always look or seem like it, every Morty is unique.”, Rick continued.

”W-wh-what are you trying to say?”, Morty almost whispered. 

“That you are special to me M-morty. And it’s starting to get reeeeally frustrating.”

Morty didn’t know what to answer; and he guessed that he was blushing like crazy right now. Every little ounce of praise that he got from Rick always managed to leave him all warm and fuzzy inside. Especially now when they hadn’t spent quality time together in a long time.

“Oh jeez, R-rick.”, Morty said and laid his head down into his hands in a weak attempt to cover his cheeks.

“Yeah-yeah. And don’t make me regret that I just told you that.”, Rick said quickly.

Then he added: “I guess that I just can’t ignore you. Well, and- and we j-just got a-a delicate example that you aren’t handling it so well either.”

“Geez I’m sorry Rick. I-I shouldn’t have touched your stuff. ... or taken that pill. I’m sorry.”

“Yea, yeahh whatever.”, Rick said with voice that suddenly appeared uninterested. Morty got a little worried. Was all of this some kind of act?

“Sooo, R-rick, are w-we like cool now?”

”Yeah. But only If y-y-you promise that you’ll never touch my stuff again w-without my permission. And also, ... that you won’t cut yourself like that again.”

“Geez R-rick, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I thought I was having a really bad nightmare or something.”, Morty whined while trying to defend himself.

”Yeahhh, but those- those pills are some pretty hardcore stuff M-Morty, it’s easy to get a bad trip if you aren’t careful enough. If I hadn’t found you in time, you would be - you would probably be dead meat right now.”

“Owwh man.”, Morty said anxiously.

“You- you know, n-next time, just ask me for some anxiety pills instead kiddo. You know, I got those kinda things too - ”

“- not everything I own is hard drugs M-morty.”, Rick continued and laid an assuring hand on top of Mortys calf that was beneath the blanket.

“Uhmm well... okay. T-thanks Rick.”, Morty said while he scratched the backside of his neck with his free hand. 

He thought it was a bit embarrassing to talk about his anxiety with Rick; mostly because it was something that he had been made fun of by like everyone for years. It had always managed to make him feel weak and insecure. But Morty really appreciated that Rick actually tried to offer him some support. Rick just wasn’t the type to just casually showed emotions and tried to offer to help someone.

“Do ya wanna go downstairs and watch some interdimensional cable?”, Rick asked in order to change the topic.

“Hmm, that sounds good Rick.”, Morty said; instantly cheering up.

“Come on then, you- you little s-shit.”, Rick said and reached out his long slim arm to ruffle Mortys hair.

Then they went down to the living room and watched TV together and actually had a fun time, just like they used to do before. Morty finally felt more happy then he had been managed to feel in weeks. 

————

About a month went by and things were great. Rick and him regularly went on adventures to collect and steal stuff for Ricks projects. But they also watched TV, played some Minecraft and even visited Blitz and Chitz when they felt like they needed to do something fun together. Things were basically back to normal again.

Right now he was inside of the garage helping Rick with one of his projects by handing him tools.

“M-morty can you grab that yellow screwdriver up on da shelf for me?”, Rick asked tiredly from across the garage.

“Sure thing.”

Morty jumped down from the workbench were he had been sitting playing some new game on his phone, and went to pick up the screwdriver. 

“Can’t w-we like, do something fun today grandpa Rick?, Morty asked.

“I’m pretty -uurp- b-busyy right now Morty. I need t-to finish this shit.”, Rick said distantly. 

“Okay.”, Morty said and handed him the screwdriver.

“Thanks buddy.”

Morty jumped back up to sit on top of the workbench again; his legs dangling off the edge. He continued to play some more on his phone; but there was something on his mind that was bugging him. He wanted to ask Rick about something that he had been on his mind for a pretty long time.

“I-I have been thinking R-rick. Can’t we like - I mean - ehhm.”, Morty stuttered.

“Out with it kid.”, Rick said tiredly.

“Ehh can’t w-we like smoke that weed again, y-y-you know, that pink one, that y-y-you had?”, Morty said and put on a nervous smile.

Finally Rick looked up from his work for the first time that afternoon.

“Ohh damn Morty. R-really? You a stoner now?”, Rick said with a grin. 

“Come o-on Rick. Can’t we do it...?”

“I actually thought you would never ask -“ Rick said; suddenly sounding excited.

“ -, thought you got scared for life after t-t-t- that fuckin pill overdose.”, he added.

“That was different R-rick!”

“Yeah-yeah okay, well I guess we could do that. But we are going to try some new stuff this time M-morty. I got- I have more things to show you M-morty!”

“Oh jeez, okay Rick. As long as it isn’t something too strong.”, Morty said anxiously. 

“Stop whining will ya, it was your idea. Now let me finish this work, and go put on a hoodie or somethin.”

“What, why R-rick?”

“I’m gonna take you somewhere M-morty. You know, the setting is - it’s important. Now go.”

“Okay R-rick.”

Morty walked up to his room and pulled out a yellow hoodie from the big messy pile of clothes inside of his closet. He smiled to himself when he thought about how Ricks mood had completely changed when the subject of weed had been brought up. Morty figured that Rick probably thought it was much more enjoyable to smoke together with someone, rather than doing it alone. And maybe, just maybe, he wished that Rick genuinely enjoyed his company.

Morty went down to the garage again with the hoodie rolled up under his arm. 

“Is there anything more I need to bring R-rick?”

Rick was now walking around inside of the garage collecting all sorts of things in his hands; the project that he had been working on so hard for the last couple of hours seemed to be already forgotten. He dumped the things that he was holding inside of a bag that stood on top of the workbench.

“You - y-you can go and get some drinks from the kitchen, because you are gonna get thhhirsty M-Morty. Real thirsty.” 

“What, why i-is that Rick?”, Morty wondered.

“It’s just this - it’s just a side effect of this type of strain.”, Rick said and pulled up a plastic bag that contained something that was deep blue looking; and shaked it in the air.

Morty went to the kitchen and opened up the fridge. He took out a few soda cans and a bottle of water and brought them back to the garage.

“C-can we go now R-rick?”, Morty asked excitedly. This was actually going to be fun. He had dreamt of doing something like this again ever since that day when they smoked in the ship. 

“Yeah, wait in the ship M-morty. I’m gonna g-go and grab a thing.”, Rick said and disappeared from the garage.

Morty climbed into the ship and waited patiently for Rick to return. He had started to feel a lot less anxious lately. Maybe it was because he and Rick hadn’t been on any way too scary and life traumatizing adventures in some time; which always was a plus.

Rick soon returned to the garage; holding something that looked like an erlenmeyer flask in his left hand. He climbed into the driver’s side of the ship and forced the weird looking flask into Morty’s hands.

“W-we are going to be smoking out of this babyy this time, M-morty.”, Rick said as he started up the engine.

“Oh jeez, i-is this some kind of bong?”

“You c-called it kiddo.”

Morty fiddled around with the bong in his hands. It was not as big and clumsy as the one he remembered that he had seen Summer use that one time. It was pretty small, with clear glass that faded out into a light blue color at the bottom. When he looked closer he saw that small sparkly particles of some sort was trapped inside of the thin glass. The bong had an assortment of weird looking alien stickers on top of it; with text and symbols that he couldn’t read. 

“Have you used it b-before R-Rick?”

“What’s up with-with these stupid ass questions? Of COURSE I have used it. Also I fucking made it.”

“Oh.”

Of course. 

Rick lifted the ship up into the air and they breaked trough the atmosphere. Morty looked outside the ship at the big black emptiness; that still held everything that was ever going to exist under its big heavy arms. It always managed to leave him scared and amazed at the same time.

Rick put on the radio and made himself comfortable in his seat. He sprawled out his long legs in front of him and let his left hand rest loosely on top of the steering wheel. They flied around for quite some time; maybe 45 minutes, until Rick finally started the course to land on a blue looking planet. While they were landing Morty could tell that it was sometime in the late afternoon; judging by the low hanging sun on the lightblue, purplish sky.

“Wh-where are we?”, Morty asked curiously.

“Somewhere nice M-Morty. I have actually wanted to take you h-here sometime.”

Morty pressed his forehead against the windowglass and looked out on the landscape. Big darkblue mountains with snow covered tops spread out all around them. Beneath the mountains meandered mint colored lakes; large hills covered with light purple grass on top of them, and forests with big gracious trees. Morty reaches out for his hoodie that laid next to him on the seat and pulled it over his head. The yellow fabric felt so smooth against his skin; probably because he usually didn’t wear it that often.

Rick parked the ship just next to one of the lakes; opened the door and stepped out. He stretched out his limbs and cracked his back. 

“Argghhh. Now com-come on kid! We are gonna go get wrecked!”, Rick said excitedly and pointed to the bong that Morty had put down on the ship floor. Rick took up the bag that he had took with him and swung it over his shoulder.

Morty picked up the bong and then proceeded to open up the passenger door and climbed down onto the soft grass. The air that blew against him felt chilling to his face; he understood now why Rick had wanted him to wear a hoodie. The ground was covered with tall lightpurple grass and here and there was a few pastel colored crystals poking up from the ground. 

“F-follow me.”, Rick said and started to walk in the direction of the lake.

Morty followed Rick closely. The last thing he wanted for today was to get in trouble by getting lost; or getting attacked by some alien creature. 

They walked over to the lake and Rick pointed to the ground next to it; signaling that Morty could take a seat. The mint colored water in the lake was still and clear; reflecting the clouds above on the sky.

Rick took out the bag containing the darkblue substance out of his bag. 

“Hand over the bong M-mmorty.” 

Rick took the bong from the Morty’s small hands and walked over to the lake and filled up the bong with the minty lakewater. The particles that Morty had observed earlier in the glass seemed to slightly light up. Rick returned back and sat down on the grass next to Morty with a sigh. He took up the plasticbag and started to pack the bowl. Rick worked fast and Morty could see that there was a lot of eagerness in his actions.

“Are y-you sure it’s not too strong f-for me Rick?”

“Stop being a little crybaby already. It’s going to be fineeee M-morty.”

“Mhmm”, Morty hummed anxiously. A sudden flashback to the overdose in the garage took over his train of thought.

“I would never let - let anything, listen, anything happen to you M-Morty. You-you need to trust me, or else you won’t enjoy this high to t-the max.”, Rick said.

“Okay R-rick...”

“Say it.”, Rick suddenly said harshly.

“What?”, Morty said surprised.

“Say tha-that you trust me M-Morty.”, Rick said and stared into Morty’s eyes with his piercing gaze;his voice suddenly appeared much more serious than it had before.

“I-i trust you.” Morty said and looked down onto his lap. Sometimes he felt like a weak prey beneath Rick’s maniac gaze.

“Good boy.”, he said with a grin and a slight chuckle.

Oh jeez. Morty’s stomach did a little jump at that.

Rick took up the same lighter that he had used on the ship before, and put his mouth against the bong. He lit up the alien weed and took a large hit; tilted his head back and closed his eyes. A big swirling cloud of deep darkblue smoke escaped his mouth and nose when he exhaled. The dark smoke staggered into the air above him and slowly dissolved into the cold air.

“Ahhh, if this - if this isn’t life.”, Rick said and laid down; using his elbows as support against the ground. He looked instantly relaxed.

“Now it’s y-your turn M-morty.”, he said and handed over the bong.

Morty clumsily fumbled around with the bong in his hands. 

“I don’t know how-how t-to use it.”, Morty said uncertainly.

“It’s okay c-come here - come to me, I will show y-you.”, Rick stuttered and patted on the ground next to him.

Morty sat down next to Rick and looked up at his grandfather. He secretly loved it when Rick took of his time to teach him new things.

“Put your hands like - like this.”, Rick said and grabbed hold of Morty’s both hands with his own. He put one on of the boy’s hands on the bong and slid in the lighter in the grip of his other hand.

Morty looked down at their hands; the contrast between them was fascinating to him in some weird type of way. Rick’s were big and strong, with long slim fingers covered with wrinkly skin. His own were so small, young and ... inexperienced. Morty felt that Rick’s hands were slightly cold against his own. Was he freezing? 

“Then, you hold the - the lighter like this. And then put y-your mouth here.”, Rick instructed and removed one of his hands.

“L-like this?”, Morty asked into the bong as he tried to follow Ricks instructions.

“Yeah Morty, just l-like that. N-now you can light it up, and stop when you see that the smoke is building up - “

Morty did as he was told.

“- yea yeah just like that, and then remove the stem. Don’t inhale to quick-“

Morty started to cough harshly; tears were forming in his eyes. The smoke burned through his throat. He realized that it had some sort of minty flavor to it, he figured that it probably was caused by the bongwater.

“Hhhg Rrrr-Rick!!”, Morty whined; his breath was caught in his throat.

Rick started to snort-laugh at his grandson. That was the cutes- uhh -funniest thing he had seen in quite some time; Morty was such a baby.

“Ohh my god M-morty! Chill the fuck out, just cough it out a-and and try again virginlungs.”

Morty coughed a few more times until the scratchy feeling in his throat had calmed down. He took up the bong and prepared himself to take another hit. 

“O-okay...”, he whispered while he lifted up the lighter.

“Carefuuul and slow M-Morty.”, Rick said with a grin on his lips.

Morty tried again, and this time he successfully managed to inhale some of the smoke from the bong without coughing.

“Hold it in, niccce and smoooth.”, Rick continued.

Morty exhaled the smoke in front of him and looked up at it in wonder. It formed a big cloud of dark, dark blue smoke; that almost seemed to glow in the thin and low rays of sunshine that still shined trough the treetops.

“Woahh...”, Morty sighed. He instantly felt high; his body relaxing. This was definitely some strong shit.

“Hand me it kiddo.”, Rick said and reached out for the bong. 

It was slowly getting darker around them; the sun had almost disappeared. A few lonely stars had started to show up in the sky. As Rick took another hit, Morty realized that the particles inside of the glass of the bong lit up when you inhaled the smoke. Rick exhaled all of the smoke in his body trough his nose this time. The blue smoke swam between them like swirling rivers.

“It lights up!”, Morty said with wonder. 

“It’s so p-prettyyy Rick, did-did u really make it?”, he added.

“Yeeahhh Morty, If ya want something nice y-you have to create it b- by yourself. That’s-that’s my lifelesson for-for today.”

“What are those stickers?”, Morty asked curiously. He leaned over so he was close to Rick and fidgeted on a loose end of one of the stickers.

“Decoration.”, Rick said matter of factly.

“What does that one say?” Morty said and pointed to a pink one with some weird alien letters on it.

“My Morty is tha best.”, Rick said and suddenly reached out his arm and ruffled Morty’s curls rather affectionately. 

“Geez, re-really?”, Morty giggled.

“Yeahhh, really, it’s true.”

Rick packed another bowl and handed the faded colored bong over to Morty again.

“Now sshut up and go ahead Mmorty, take-take another one.”, Rick said excitedly.

He actually acted just like a child sometimes, Morty thought and smiled to himself. 

Morty took another hit from the bong; feeling a little more confident now. He slowly breathed out the smoke trough his mouth, and watched as it dissolved in the air. Now he could definitely feel it. A cozy warm feeling spread trough his body; and it almost felt like the skin on his body was hugging him tightly.

“Ohh geez R-rick.”, Morty said and laid down on the soft purple grass. His lightheaded mind made it feel like the sky above him was spinning around; so he closed his eyes. 

“Such a-a fuckin baby.”, Rick whistled.

Rick took another hit for himself and then put the bong aside for a moment. He reached over to his bag and grabbed a beercan and popped it open. When Morty heard the familiar sound of a can being opened he shot his eyes up; his mouth immediately starting to water. 

“Ohh my god R-rick, I’m so t-thirsty.  
— and I can’t feel my mouth. Oh my god! R-rick I can’t feel it.”, Morty half laughed; half panicked.

“You’r sooo fu-fucking high.”, Rick said and started to search for something in his bag.

“Here y-youh go buddy.”, he said and handed Morty the waterbottle that they had brought with them. Morty quickly grabbed it, unscrewed the lid, and took a large refreshing gulp.

“Ahhhhh, - it’s soo good.”, Morty moaned.

“ - I n-never believed that w-water could taste this gwwood, granpa”, he continued with a smile.

He looked up at Rick with squinted eyes and a big grin. Rick on the other hand had a surprised look on his face, his eyes were wide open. The eyes were shining in a lightblue color and the iris were surrounded by a darkblue ring; Morty figured that his eyes probably looked the same. But then he realized something more. Was Rick ... was he... blushing? 

“What i-is it?”

“Uhhh.”, Rick mumbled. He broke the eye contact and took a sip of his beer. “It’s nothin.”

“Ohkay R-rick.”, Morty hummed happily.

He felt so happy and alive; like he could do anything. This weed was even better than the pink one that they did before. He glanced over to the lake, it looked so beautiful.

“C-can I go and look at the l-lake R-Rick?”, Morty said and looked up at Rick with pleading eyes.

“Sh-sure, go ahead. Just don’t fall in dumbass.”, Rick said. He let out a small breath; relived that Morty didn’t seem to catch up on his odd behavior.

Since Morty didn’t feel like his balance was at its greatest at the moment, he quickly decided to crawl the short distance to the edge of the lake instead. The knees on his jeans probably got stained by the earthy ground beneath him; but he couldn’t care less. 

When he reached the lake he looked down into the depths and let himself get al swallowed up by the amazing sight beneath him. The lake was very deep and the water seemed to be almost crystal clear. Deep, deep down he spotted a bunch of glowing rocks, no they were crystals!, that were lightning up the depths. White incredibly large and gracious koi fish with long fins and tails swam around in perfectly tranquil circle-motions beneath him. It felt weird and hypnotizing too look at and Morty adverted his eyes. 

“See anything cool M-morty?”, Rick suddenly said over his shoulder.

“Ohhh mmm, a-are those fish down there real Rick?” 

”Yeah s-sort of.”

”What do you mean R-rick? Am I hallucinating ... o-or ... am I dreaming?”, Morty said slowly and stared back down in the water.

“C-Combination of bothh.”, Rick said and took a seat on the grass behind Morty’s back.

He added: “The water - the bong water that I used from the lake M-Morty, it works l-like - like some sort of hallucinogenic to humans.”

“Woaahh...geeez.” Morty said dreamy. 

“Everyone w-will see different things down there.”, Rick added.

Ricks head suddenly appeared just behind Mortys shoulder; he bent over Mortys small frame so that he could get a view of the water beneath them.

“Right now, I see -I see a lot of shattered fucking glass.”, Rick whispered close to Morty’s ear.

Morty felt a shiver filled with goosebumps run trough his whole body when Ricks breath touched his ear. It was an incredible feeling. Morty fumbled around with his hands on the ground until he found hold of Ricks labcoat. Safety.

“D-don’t fall...”, Morty whispered. 

“I won’t.”

Suddenly Morty felt Ricks long arms lock around his body in a tight embrace. It took a few seconds until Morty realized that it was Rick that hugged him. Morty teared his eyes from the hypnotizing fish and turned around to wrap his arms around Rick’s thin middle in response. Ricks body were cold against his own. He really must have been freezing then, Morty thought. Or maybe he was always this cold? Ricks shirt was well-worn and the texture felt rough against Mortys cheek. He sighed and pressed his face harder against Ricks chest. It felt scary and safe at the same time to be this close to someone like his grandfather. A big familiar hand found its way into his messy curls on top of his head.

They stayed like that for a while.

“T-Thanks Rick.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hellooo! uwu
> 
> So this is like my first fic ever! I’m from Sweden so I’m so so sorry if my English isn’t perfect, I’m trying my best! :D
> 
> Feel free to leave feedback if you want!


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